


This Damn Sugar Coat

by SSA_Arrowverse



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Fluff and Angst, I'm so sorry for this lol, Multi, Nat and the OC are basically sisters, idk what to tag, there's gonna be violence eventually
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-05
Updated: 2020-06-13
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:33:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23499076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SSA_Arrowverse/pseuds/SSA_Arrowverse
Summary: Calypso "Cali" Slater has lived a less than normal life. Growing up being raised by four of the best S.H.I.E.L.D. agents has its negatives, but there's also the positives (like being trained by the one and only Black Widow).Cali has been given the chance of a lifetime - but is everything as it seems, or is there an ulterior motive?or, I had a really weird dream that'll be in a chapter somewhere down the road and my brain turned it into this.
Relationships: Avengers Team & Original Female Character(s), Natasha Romanov (Marvel) & Original Female Character(s), Wanda Maximoff & Original Female Character(s)
Kudos: 2





	1. My Truth Gets Told Some Whether It’s Right or Wrong

**Author's Note:**

> The title is from 'Sugar Coat' by Little Big Town.
> 
> Chapter 1’s title is from 'a country song' by Kelsea Ballerini (from her new album, kelsea, which I am absolutely obsessed with). It’ll make more sense later in the story…
> 
> The info on Columbia Nat mentions in one of the flashbacks is from https://www.traveller.com.au/an-australian-expat-in-medellin-colombia-what-its-like-to-live-there-h18xp6
> 
> The quote and info about the Greek goddess-nymph Calypso is from https://www.theoi.com/Nymphe/NympheKalypso.html
> 
> The info about the Greek goddess Athena is from https://greekgodsandgoddesses.net/goddesses/athena/
> 
> Italics = Flashback
> 
> I'm still semi-new to the MCU fandom and I'm still learning, so please let me know if I get any major (or minor) details wrong! I'm going to change a few canon things throughout the story, but I'll do my best to clarify those differences as they come.

_A girl - no older, or younger, than fifteen - approaches the S.H.I.E.L.D. director, “Fury?”_

“Nat?”

_“Yes, Slater?” the one-eyed-man asks._

“Yeah?”

_“Maria said you needed to-” the blonde begins to say, but pauses when she sees two other figures in Fury’s office standing in front of his desk, looking at her. “Hi, May?”_

“I just got a text from Clint, said you needed to-”

_“Agent Romanoff, this is Cali Slater. The Operations instructors call her ‘Snapshot,’” Director Fury states. Cali smiles sheepishly, looking down at the mention of her nickname._

“Agent Slater, this is Steve Rogers and Wanda Maximoff,” Fury interrupts as Cali’s eyes widen tenfold, “Captain American, Scarlet Witch, this is Cali Slater, codename Snapshot.”

_“Snapshot, huh? Where’d that come from?” Romanoff - Black Widow, as Cali and the rest of the world know her - asks._

“Snapshot? I like it,” Captain America comments.

_“I have a photographic memory,” Cali explains. She leaves out the minor fact that she holds the record for the quickest reload and fire time._

“Photographic memory…” Cali absently whispers, “What’s going on?”

_“Fury…? May?” Cali asks timidly._

“Agent Slater,” Fury begins, “I think you and Agent Romanoff should have a word.”

_“Romanoff, I think we should give these two some space for a moment,” Fury suggests (though it's more of a demand), already patting Cali gently on the back as he walks past her. Romanoff follows, giving Cali a small smile as she passes._

Cali looks at him, a stern gaze reserved only for him as her eyebrows furrow in confusion and worry. Before she can catch up with everything, Captain American, Scarlet Witch, and Fury all leave the room, but not before Captain America gives her a small nod.

_Cali looks at May incredulously, watching as the older woman just stands there, inspecting Cali’s facial expression. Her question goes unspoken, but May knows what it is._

“Nat, what’s-” Cali begins, but stops herself when she sees Natasha smile, a genuine, proud smile.

_“Cali, how would you like to train under Agent Romanoff’s supervision?”_

“How would you feel about meeting the Avengers?”

_“What!?” she all but shouts, causing May to roll her eyes and laugh a little._

It takes everything in her to not scream her next question, managing to force it out as a quiet, craven “What?”

Nat repeats her question verbatim, which earns her a glare from Cali.

“This… you’re joking, right? Did Clint put you up to this? This is his idea of a joke, right?” Cali asks, pacing around the conference room.

“As hilarious as that would be, and so very Clint, no. It’s not a joke. How would you feel about that?”

Rather than answering, Cali stops pacing and wraps her arms around Nat’s neck, who laughs as she returns the hug.

“Is that a yes?” Nat asks as they end the hug. The others re-enter the room soon after.

“What do you think?” Cali retorts.

“Congratulations. Get this back to me by the end of the day,” Fury deadpans, dropping a seven-inch-tall stack of papers in Cali’s unexpecting arms, feigning an innocent smile when she almost drops them.

“Fury!” Cali whines as Natasha takes the papers from her. Like taking a leash off of a hyper puppy, Cali runs after Fury.

“Is Fury… laughing?” Steve asks when the two are out of earshot.

“He pretty much raised her,” Nat explains, watching as Fury and Cali argue (while trying to suppress smiles) over the paperwork.

•••

_This is actually happening,_ Cali’s thoughts continue to run wild as she and Nat sit in the back of a limo with _Captain America_ and _Scarlet Witch._

“Calm down,” Nat orders without looking up from her phone.

Cali looks at Nat, who raises an eyebrow but continues to not look at Cali as the blonde deadpans, “Guatapé.”

_“This is Columbia?” Cali asks Natasha as they exit the taxi._

_“Yeah, whatever you do, don’t mention Pablo Escobar. It’ll piss off the locals,” Nat explains. Cali nods in response._

_Hours later, the two are sitting in a small cafe. Cali bounces her leg up and down nervously, trying (and failing) to seem nonchalant._

_“Calm down,” Nat deadpans, looking over the menu for the fifth time._

_“On my three,” Cali whispers. Nat looks over and sees their suspect - a middle-aged caucasian male from Denmark with a bear head tattoo on the left side of his neck - checking out a souvenir shop selling hats and other accessories._

_Nat and Cali carefully approach the man. Cali stands about six feet away to the right of him, looking at something from another store while keeping her eyes on the target. Nat stands directly to his left, watching as he (not-so) sneakily places a small glass plate - Cali doesn’t understand how something so little and mundane can be worth so much - in a small bag._

_The plate - according to S.H.I.E.L.D.’s files - is dated back to fourteenth-century Slovakia, worth about eighteen-million dollars. It was stolen from a (completely legal) auction filled with historians and American one-percenters. The man they’re tailing, Nikolaj Povlsen, is just a courier but is still high up on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s radar._

_Cali watches as Nat starts a small conversation with the man, enough to distract him from his task. After a few minutes, Natasha says something causing him to run. Cali trips him as he passes her, causing the plate to go flying into the air. Cali catches it, but immediately almost drops it again, distracting him long enough for Nat to grab him._

_“Cali, calm down,” Nat states as Cali catches the plate mid-air again._

_“But, I got it!” Nat rolls her eyes in response as she directs Povlsen forward._

“Kastoria,” Nat responds. Cali’s eyes widen before she looks away.

_“So, Apostolos Kairiades. Remember the profile?” Nat asks as they sit in a Quinjet._

_“Kairiades is super-rich, likes blondes, whiskey, and scotch. And oh! He’s a total criminal. Nat, I’ve got this. Plus, if something goes wrong, you’ll be there,” Cali replies._

_“What makes him a criminal?” Nat asks._

_“Apostolos Kairiades is wanted for embezzlement and espionage in five countries, including his home country, Greece, the US, and England,” Cali repeats the S.H.I.E.L.D. file verbatim._

_“Landing,” Nat alerts a few minutes later._

_Cali, dressed in a skin-tight navy blue dress (picked by Nat, of course, since Cali’s idea of fashion is a leather jacket, a pair of ripped skinny jeans, and combat boots), exits the Quinjet and enters a limo S.H.I.E.L.D. has waiting. As soon as she gets in, the driver (an undercover S.H.I.E.L.D. agent) brings her to the venue - an old dome-like building dating back to Ancient Greece._

_As soon as she enters, Cali checks in with Nat, who’s waiting by the bar. Grabbing an offered glass of champagne, Cali walks around looking for the target, who just so happens to be the host. Not seeing the target, she walks up to an unoccupied table in the corner of the large room, giving her a perfect view of any and all exits._

_“What’s a girl like you doing sitting there all alone?” a man with a subtle greek accent asks. Cali looks up from her phone to see the target approaching her with a cocky yet charming smile. “Looking for some company?”_

_“Depends on who it is,” Cali responds teasingly. She flashes him a small smile of her own._

_“Will I do?” Kairiades questions, his tone now serious._

_“Depends,” Cali says simply._

_“On?”_

_“Do you have a name, Mr. Charming?” Cali says. She can imagine Natasha’s rolling her eyes right now._

_“_ Seriously, Cali? ‘Mr. Charming?’ _” Nat questions on comms._

_“Apostolos, my dear,” Kairiades responds. Cali hums thoughtfully as he offers her his hand._

_“Calypso,” she responds as he gently kisses her knuckles. She resists the urge to scoff and roll her eyes._

_“Like the nymph, from the island of Ogygia?” Kairiades questions, his curiosity clearly peaked._

_“Yes, my father is_ quite _a mythology enthusiast,” Cali answers._

_“‘There dwells Kalypso, the goddess of braided hair and of strange powers and of human speech,” Kairiades recites._

_Cali smiles, though her eyebrows are furrowed with interest, “_ The Odyssey _, by Homer.”_

_“_ And _she’s smart. Are you sure your name isn’t Athena?”_

_“Goddess of wisdom, courage, strategic warfare, among others. The other version of her name, Athene, is my middle name, actually,” Cali says the last part with a subtle laugh._

_“_ Cali, time to wrap this up. We got our ID confirmation, _” Nat warns._

_“You know, it’s getting a little crowded in here. Is there anywhere more… private?” Cali runs her hands near the sleeve of his jacket, suppressing an exult when he nods his head and offers for her to follow him._

_He leads her to an eloquently decorated staircase. At the top is a long, two-way hallway with a few doors on each side. He stops at the third door on the right end of the hall and opens it, waiting for her to enter first. She whispers her thanks as she steps past him._

_He offers her a glass of white wine, making her realize she left her previous drink downstairs. She takes the glass cautiously, noticing a small trace of some sort of powder in it. He seemingly trusts her enough to drink it as he turns his back to her to pour himself a glass. He turns back around and makes a quiet toast to something. She’s not entirely sure what he said, she’s too focused on figuring out what’s in the glass and how to tell Nat without making him suspicious._

_“Cheers,” she responds, then takes a prudent sip. Immediately, she feels the effects of whatever drug he spiked her drink with. Some sort of roofie, her slightly addled brain deduces._

_“_ Cali? What’s going on? I lost you for a minute, where are you? _” Natasha asks, bringing Cali’s focus back to the mission._

_“So, do you bring all the girls you meet to a private second floor, or am I special?” Cali asks playfully, ignoring the drug’s effects for as long as possible. She tries to remember the codeword she and Nat came up with to signal she’s ready for infiltration, but her current state is making it hard to remember._

_“What’s it to you?” Kairiades playfully fires back._

Bragger _, her thoughts exclaim._

_“I dunno, maybe I just like being a bragger to my friends?” she responds, raising her left eyebrow teasingly._

_“_ Okay, heading in, _”_ _Nat informs._

_Minutes later, Natasha knocks the door down, startling Cali and Kairiades. He goes to make a run for it, but the older agent shoots a garrote at his feet with her Widow’s Bite. The target falls with a loud thud when his head hits the ground, rendering him unconscious. Two more S.H.I.E.L.D. agents come in and take him away while Nat runs to Cali, who’s struggling to stay on her feet._

_“Cali, hey, what’s wrong?” the redhead asks._

_“He… he drugged me… ‘dunno what it… what it was…” the blonde slurs in response. Nat tries to help her, but the half-empty glass of wine slips from Cali’s hand._

_Nat catches it before it can hit the ground and playfully remarks, “Klutz.”_

“What just happened?” Maximoff asks quietly. Rogers shrugs in response.

“Long story. Just don’t trust Cali with anything fragile,” Natasha supplies. Cali closes her eyes and buries her head in her hands.

“It was one time…” Cali whispers.

“Twice,” Nat rebuts.

“He drugged me!”


	2. It Was Good, So Good

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cali meets the rest of the Avengers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 2’s title comes from I Lost You by Dylan Scott. It’ll make sense later.
> 
> For more information on cognitive hypnotherapy (a very real and very awesome form of therapeutic/memory recalling hypnosis), see https://www.hypnotherapy-directory.org.uk/approach/cognitivehypnotherapy.html

“And that’s the Avengers’ facility,” Wanda (as Cali was instructed to call her) declares as they reenter the living area.

“So… do you wanna meet the rest of the team?” Nat asks though Cali suspects she already knows the answer. “I’m not sure where Rhodey and Thor are. Steve and Sam are probably having a race around the compound, Vision is… somewhere and Tony and Bruce are probably hidden in the lab or something. So you have time.”

“Time for…?” Cali questions.

“Time to unpack,” Natasha responds. Cali rolls her eyes, waiting for- “and for us to talk.”

Cali gives Nat a confused look as the redhead drags her back to her room - which Cali remembers is the one across from Nat’s and next to Wanda’s.

“Talk? Talk about what, Nat?” Cali questions as soon as Natasha closes the door to the barren bedroom.

“Cal, I know you. I know when you’re nervous. I know when you’re getting overwhelmed and when you’re hiding behind your playful, carefree attitude to hide it,” Nat responds.

“God, I hate that you know me so well,” Cali mutters rather than actually denying or confirming Nat’s analysis.

“No, you love it. Plus, it’s what makes me such a good teacher,” Nat replies with a cocky half-smile.

“Conceited much?”

“You love it.”

“Whatever. I’m fine, though.” The conversation pauses for a few seconds until Cali looks at Natasha with a guarded expression, “Wait, why… Why now? I mean, you’ve been training me for the past four years, and I’m just _now_ meeting them? three years after the- after it...” Cali asks, sitting on the bed cross-legged, a forlorn expression taking over her face.

The late Agent Phil Coulson was the one who initially found Cali and took her in, giving her a home. He’s the reason any of this is happening now. While Fury and Maria are the ones that raised Cali, Coulson and Melinda May were like the cool uncle and aunt. When he died, Cali closed herself off for a while. Three months, to be exact. Everyone was patient with her, except Natasha, who pushed her to use the loss as a motivator.

“Level six, Cali,” Nat deadpans.

“I’m level four-”

“Not level six,” Natasha quickly interrupts.

“So, make me level six,” Cali challenges.

Nat laughs a little before responding, “You should try that with Fury.”

“I would if S.H.I.E.L.D. wasn’t gone...” Cali mutters, crossing her arms over her chest.

“ _Pardon the interruption, ladies, but Captain Rogers is requesting your presence in the living area,_ ” a feminine voice alerts the two. Cali stands from being startled, but trips over something (nothing) and ends up falling on the floor.

Nat laughs before saying a quick, “Thanks, F.R.I.D.A.Y.”

“What the hell was that?” Cali asks, spinning around and examining everything as they walk back towards the others. Despite Nat’s amazing training in observation, Cali can’t see any anomalous details in the building.

Natasha grabs the younger woman’s shoulder, forcing her to walk normally as they turn around a corner, coming face-to-face with an exhausted Sam Wilson and a cheery Steve.

“You damn super soldier!” Wilson exclaims. Cali raises her left eyebrow questioningly at the two as they break out into some incomprehensible argument.

“Is- is that normal?” she asks Natasha, who doesn’t respond.

Steve puts his right hand up, waving Wilson into silence.

Cali whispers something about Steve’s arms to Natasha, who playfully hits her arm in response.

“Ow,” she whisper-shouts, attracting everyone’s attention. “Oh. Hi.”

“Sam, this is Cali Slater. Natasha’s... apprentice,” Steve announces. Cali smiles sheepishly, causing Nat to hide a small laugh with her hand.

“You never mentioned having an apprentice,” Wilson says in response. “Nice to meet you,” he adds with a smile.

“Apprentice? I’m more like a… partner,” Cali offers.

Natasha scoffs, “Yeah, more like a sidekick.”

Before anyone can say anything else, Bruce Banner, Tony Stark, and Vision enter from the opposite hallway. The three are in a deep conversation, Cali picks up a few words she thinks are “interdimensional” and “subatomic annihilation” but ignores it. The three stop talking when they notice everyone watching them.

“Is… something wrong, sir?” Vision asks Steve, who laughs lightly before introducing them to Cali.

Banner, seemingly having an epiphany, quickly looks at Tony and exclaims, “What if we used hypnosis to recover his repressed behaviors?”

“Would that even work?” Tony asks, “Is there even research to back it- Does hypnosis even _work_?”

“Who’s repressed behaviors?” Cali whispers to Natasha.

“Bucky Barnes, Steve’s-”  
  
“Friend from the forties. Winter Soldier, you sorta met him in 2009, I remember hearing Maria talking about it with Fury. Why are they- Oh,” Cali whispers back. She says the last word out loud, once again gaining everyone’s attention.

“Cali?” Steve asks curiously.

“Um… have you tried cognitive hypnotherapy?” Cali begins, “It’s easy to control, and it’s extremely effective in most cases. The client is conscious- or, uh… bad word choice, ‘cause they’re kinda um… it’s complicated. They’re awake the entire time, and the therapist actively guides them through it, so if something goes wrong, they can be safely pulled back to reality.”

Everyone but Nat looks at Cali with different levels of shock written clearly on their faces.

“Oh, I have a Ph.D. in criminal psychology, and a master’s in clinical psych…” Cali says with a sheepish smile as she absently holds her right elbow with her left hand.

“I’m sorry, how old are you, exactly?” Tony asks skeptically.

“Nineteen,” Cali answers quickly.

“I want one,” Tony says, confusing Cali.

“Tony, you can’t just-” Nat begins.

“I did it with you, and it worked, so. I want one. Her, I want her. To hire her, I mean. FRIDAY, call Pepper,” he orders, already walking away as FRIDAY begins dialing.

“What the hell just happened?” Cali asks quietly, Natasha rolls her eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm on my third draft of chapter 4, I have no clue what I'm doing lol.


	3. Phase Two, Overwhelmed By Attention

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 3’s title comes from 'Chapters' by Brett Young ft. Gavin DeGraw. Honestly, I came up with a lot of this story while listening to this song (and the rest of the album, ‘Ticket to L.A.’)
> 
> The thing about ghosts being created by our brains is from an episode of Criminal Minds (link below this paragraph). Also yay I threw in an Arrowverse reference (I mean, it’s really not considering the thing referenced is a real thing so like...I don’t know yay science? no I hate science).
> 
> 7x09 “Self-Fulfilling Prophecy” https://criminalminds.fandom.com/wiki/Self-Fulfilling_Prophecy
> 
> So, it was brought to my attention that Thor and Banner left Earth (or something) at the end of AoU (I haven’t seen the end of the movie in a while), but I put them in chapter 2, but I fixed it in chapter 3. Hope y’all don’t mind!

If someone were to ask Cali what the last two weeks have been like, she’d probably say that it’s been interesting, to say the least. Currently, the team is doing a ‘bonding exercise,’ which is really just code for Steve wanting to catch up on twenty-first-century video games.

Cali, being that she wasn’t really allowed to play video games at S.H.I.E.L.D. growing up, is taking the time to learn, as well. Currently, Sam and Clint are playing some game about World War II, with Steve and Cali complaining about the inaccuracies of it.

“Bullshit,” Cali mutters for the fifth time in the last ten minutes.

“Language,” Tony admonishes. Steve grumbles something under his breath about how it was one time and that he’ll never live it down, but Cali ignores both men.

“That’s not what our bunks looked like!” Steve protests cynically.

Twenty minutes pass with more complaints (mostly from Steve) until Wanda suggests just watching a movie. After another ten minutes of arguing, Sam and Nat suggests playing a horror movie. Halfway through the movie, Clint screams like a seven-year-old girl and bolts out of the room.

Sam, with shaking hands, pauses the movie and asks if someone should go after Clint. Thor (who came back to Earth a week after Cali first arrived) and Cali, unable to keep it in anymore, begin laughing.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Tony asks disbelievingly.

“How the hell can you be scared of  _ that _ ?” Cali points to the TV while trying to calm down, “Ghosts are literally just our minds trying to account for the lack of light and sound. There’s nothing scary about any of it. You know what  _ is _ terrifying?”

“My illusions,” Wanda interjects absently. Everyone looks at her curiously.

“Try it on Cali, Wanda,” Nat offers playfully.

“I was gonna say time travel…” Cali mumbles.

“Time travel!? Cali, it’s not even real. Plus, what’s so ‘terrifying’ about it?” Bruce asks, clearly looking for some genius explanation.

“Easy. You could make a time paradox, changing the timeline drastically and if you manage to fix it, it’ll never be the same and there’s no way to tell what ramifications it’ll have. Or Stark, what if your Arc Reactor somehow got to World War II? That anachronism would literally destroy the world if it got in the wrong hands.”

“I’m sorry, did you just say ‘anachronism?’” Tony asks, obviously intrigued.

“Yeah… why?”

“What’s an... uh-chronic-syndrome?” Thor asks, Cali notes he’s obviously intrigued despite his major mispronunciation.

“Anachronism,” Cali corrects, “It’s something misplaced in time. Like if Shakespeare somehow ended up in the 90s, or if-”

“If a certain World War II soldier happened to be in 2015?” Tony asks looking at Steve.

“I mean… if you wanna go with the non-scientific definition, then I guess,” Cali answers.

“Okay, Wanda, do something with your powers before she starts speaking again,” Clint yells as he walks back into the room.

Cali scoffs and sticks up her middle finger at him before they go back to watching the movie.

•••

“Okay, go again,” Nat instructs Cali. The two are in the training room practicing some advanced fighting styles Cali finally convinced Natasha to teach her.

“How long have we been doing this?” Cali asks as she tries to catch her breath.

“Four hours.”

“And how much longer are we gonna do this?”

“Until you learn it,” Nat answers with a smile.

“C’mon… even May’s nicer when training…” It’s petty and immature to pull the May card, but Cali doesn’t have enough energy to consider the negatives.

“Well, May isn’t training you, is she?” Natasha retorts, Cali hangs her head in defeat.

“No…” she whispers in response.

“That’s what I thought. But fine, go hit the showers,” Nat concedes.

Cali throws her fists in the air and whisper-shouts a yes, though immediately regrets it when her arms and back burn in protest.

•••

A few minutes after Cali leaves, as Natasha starts cleaning up the gym, Steve walks in.

“You’re different when she’s around,” he comments softly.

“Am I?” Nat feigns obliviousness.

If Steve picked up on Natasha’s lack of denial, he doesn’t mention it.

“You’re really good with her.”

“She’s nineteen, not a baby,” Natasha rebukes. “But, she’s had a rough life. She ran away from her family at the age of seven. She spent eleven years being raised by four of the greatest S.H.I.E.L.D. agents ever, then one of them got killed by a sociopathic god. She depended on S.H.I.E.L.D., then it fell. Right now she’s lost, and the way her mind works, if she doesn’t have  _ someone _ to depend on, she’s gonna spiral.”

“How’d you meet her?” Steve asks curiously.

“Four years ago,” she begins with a smile, “Fury called me and another agent, a friend, Melinda May, into his office. He told me that there was a priority red asset he wanted me to watch over. When I asked who it was, Fury said it was a girl, but that’s all he said. May already knew her, but at that point, she already dropped to a desk job.”

Nat pauses for a second, gauging Steve for a reaction. He listens with rapt attention.

“Then this teenager comes walking in, not even paying attention to where she’s going and almost walks into the door frame. She calls his name like he’s not one of the world’s most intimidating men alive, and he doesn’t even bat an eye. It’s funny, how similar it was to when Cali met you and Wanda.”

Steve smiles again, confusing Natasha. Instead of questioning him, she continues talking.

“At first I was kind of cold to her. For the first year, really. I didn’t understand why some girl was so important, but then Coulson died, and she took it hard; closed herself off completely from everyone. Maria tried getting her to talk to someone, but she just refused and found every excuse not to. Eventually, I tried talking to her, and something I said must’ve gotten to her because she started opening up to me. Since then, everything I’ve ever done has been to protect her,” Nat finishes, looking at the door Cali had exited from.

•••

Cali spends the rest of the week getting to know the rest of the team, excluding Bruce and Thor since they left a few days ago. She starts with Steve since he (and Nat) came up with the idea in the first place.

Currently, the two are walking around Brooklyn, giving Steve a chance to get to know the modern-day version of the city. As they walk around, Steve tells Cali all about how it was back in the forties, which she listens to with enthusiastic attention, even asking questions here and there, which she can tell amuses Steve greatly.

Steve pauses speaking and walking as they pass an alleyway.

“Something wrong, Cap?” Cali grows more concerned when Steve’s lively look is taken over by a forlorn one.

“No, just remembering something from the past with a good friend of mine…” Cali knows he’s talking about Bucky, but decides to not force him to continue since he’s clearly growing uncomfortable.

Lucky for both of them, Steve looks at something down the street a little, a bright smile taking over his face again. “How do you feel about some ice cream?” he asks, glee shining in his eyes. Cali laughs as she nods her head.

“Hey, Oldie?” she asks playfully.

“Oldie?”

“I mean, I was gonna go with Goldie, but we both have blonde hair, so it’s kinda making fun of myself, too. Anyways, think you can keep up?” Cali asks, knowing full-well that Steve is much faster than her.

“Oh, you’re on, kid,” Cali starts running before he can even finish talking.

After they get their ice cream, they sit at a table. At first, a few people come up and ask for Steve’s autograph or a picture. Cali watches Steve with what she thinks might come off as child-like amusement at his reaction to a group of girls barely older than her trying to flirt with him. Eventually, after the number of fans dwindles down, they start talking about the Super Soldier Serum.

When Steve’s done explaining everything he knows about it, Cali looks at him with disbelief. “So it’s… steroids?”

“What- No! It’s so much worse-”

“It’s a steroid without the roid rage.”

“I mean-”

“It’s a  _ super fast-acting _ steroid without the roid rage,” Cali affirms. Steve chuckles as he shrugs his shoulders in defeat. “Why didn’t they just call it… I dunno… the ‘Super Soldier Steroid?’”

“You’d have to ask Abraham Erskine.”

“Hey, Cap…?” Cali asks shyly.

“Yeah?”

“Thanks,” she whispers.

He smiles softly at her.

•••

“Hey, Steel Boy,” Cali says as she enters Tony’s lab with whatever food Pepper asked her to bring to him.

“Quickshot!”

“Thanks for the compliment! Pepper wanted me to give you this,” she tosses the food to his waiting hands as she sits on the counter.

“Oh, how generous of you,” he deadpans.

“I did it for Pepper, not for you. So, what’re you working on?” She asks as she steals a fry.

“A new suit.”

“So, that’s not actually iron, right?” she asks curiously.

“Nope,” he responds, popping the ‘p’ a little.

“So, does that mean you’re a fraud?”

Tony chokes on the fry he’s swallowing. He coughs a few times before responding, “I am anything but a fraud! You take that back, or you’re grounded.”

“One, I’m legally an adult, so you can’t do that. Two, if anyone here can ground me, it’s Nat. Or Pepper, ‘cause she’s intimidating when she wants to be…”

“Listen, Crackblast, not that I don’t enjoy your company, but what are you really doing here? We’ve already established there’s nothing in this room that could possibly interest you.”

“Honestly, Steve and Nat want me to spend one-on-one time with the team,” Cali shrugs.

The two spend another thirty minutes of silence, save for Tony’s frustrated mutterings and asking Cali to hand him tools here and there. At some point, the silence goes from somewhat awkward to peaceful. Cali uses one of Stark’s computers to do some research on something for one of her covers as he continues working on the armor. They stay in the lab until midnight when Natasha and Pepper come to drag them out so they can get some rest.

•••

Day three of Cali’s bonding exercise is spent with Wanda. The two decide to do something normal (or as normal as a teenager raised by S.H.I.E.LD. and a Sokovian Avenger can manage) for the day, opting to (with Nat’s distant supervision) go to the mall.

“Cali… how are we-” Wanda begins to ask as she looks at a jacket but stops when Cali shows her one of Tony’s debit cards.

“Did you pickpocket-” Wanda questions sternly.

“What!? No! Pepper gave it to me!” the blonde whisper-shouts in return.

“Why are you whispering? No one’s around,” Wanda comments. Cali signals for Wanda to be quiet then points to Nat watching them over a magazine while sitting on a couch outside of the store. Natasha looks up and waves to them a little when she notices they’re watching her. “Oh. How’d you even know-”

“Nat’s been training me for the past four years. Before that, Maria and Mel raised me.”

“Who?” Wanda asks, her bafflement written clearly on her face.

“Maria Hill and Melinda May. Also, she only let me leave the compound if she came, too.”

“Still doesn’t explain why you’re whispering,” Wanda points out.

“It’s Nat! She could be listening right now!”

“I’m starting to think you’re more paranoid than she is,” Wanda mutters. Cali rolls her eyes and continues letting Wanda help her find something that isn’t denim or leather.

About ten minutes later, the two are walking around the mall, looking for something to do or somewhere to go.

“So, where does the name ‘Snapshot’ really come from?” Wanda asks curiously as they sit down at the food court.

Cali bites her bottom lip as she looks around, “Okay, you see that sign over there? The one with the red circle?” Wanda nods her head in response as Cali points at a sign angling away from them. Rather than answering, Cali throws a knife, hitting the center of the circle perfectly despite the awkward angle.

“Did Natasha teach you that?”

“No, May did,” Cali answers with a shy smile. The conversation turns into telling each other stories of growing up in Sokovia and S.H.I.E.L.D. They lose track of time, not realizing how late it is (almost six o’clock) until Nat sends a text asking if they want a ride back to the compound.

•••

On day four, Cali hangs out with Sam and Rhodey. Time with Sam turns into a playful competition of any and every kind the two can think of, ranging from hand-to-hand combat spars, to who can out-prank who, to who can get the higher score on some online trivia site.

Eventually, the two decide to team up and prank the others. The first prank is on Steve. They go to the gym while Steve’s training with his shield. Sam distracts Steve by asking him about a past mission while Cali switches his shield with a plate. Steve gets so caught up in the conversation that he doesn’t even realize what’s happened until he hears what’s supposed to be made of the strongest metal on Earth shatter when it hits the wall. Steve turns to Cali with an unreadable expression as she uses his actual shield to hide from him, a sheepish smile plastered on her face. He gets back at them ten minutes later by locking Sam’s suit and Cali’s combat knife in a metal box in the middle of the living area. They have to literally beg Wanda to use her powers to open it.

Clint is a bit harder to prank since he hasn’t done anything all day besides sit in the living area and watch TV. Sam decides to have Cali challenge Clint to a shooting match. Clint agrees hesitantly when she mentions that she’s only going to use throwing knives. When they get to the range, Cali makes a bet with Clint, declaring that the loser owes the winner two hundred dollars. Clint, being a little too confident, agrees. Sam uses Redwing to intercept all of Clint’s arrows. Clint refuses to pay up, arguing that Cali cheated. She rebuts with a cocky, “We never set any rules, so pay up, old man.”

Ten minutes into planning their prank on Natasha, she walks in and points out all of the flaws in their plan, the last one being that she knew what they were planning without seeing or hearing anything about it. Sam blames Cali, claiming that Cali either warned Nat or the redhead knew because she helped raise the girl. In turn, she blames Sam’s lack of discretion.

Their prank on Wanda, however, is by far Cali’s favorite. The plan doesn’t really make sense to Cali since Sam came up with it, but all she has to do is distract Wanda for a few minutes. As soon as Wanda opens the door to her room for Cali to enter, the older woman states, “I can hear your thoughts, you’re a very loud thinker. I know Sam’s plan, but I have a better one.” Despite the shock (and embarrassment) of being called a “loud thinker,” Cali agrees to betray Sam and help Wanda, causing the end of Cali and Sam’s bonding experience.

•••

Rhodey shares stories from his time with the Air Force, as well as stories of how he met Stark and the crazy things they’ve done together.

•••

Cali spends eight hours on day five trying to get some sort of genuine human reaction from Vision (which, by Nat’s translation to Steve, means she’s trying to annoy him). She asks him any and every question she can think of. Then, when that doesn’t work, she tries out different psychological tricks (none of which work on the android). She gives up when Vision manages to stump her with a trick of his own.

“If a liar says he’s lying, is he lying?” Cali asks Vision. Vision goes into a twenty-minute explanation of how both ‘yes’ and ‘no’ could be the correct answer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh rao... just... oh rao... the person the "oh rao" is for knows who she is... hopefully...
> 
> also i know the end of the chapter is bad... i'm just not happy with anything i've tried adding to it.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! If anyone reading this read my Supergirl story, 'To Hell & Back,' please know that I haven't abandoned that, I'm just having a bit of trouble writing chapter 4.
> 
> Speaking of chapter 4... I've already written the next two chapters for TDSC, I just need to upload them and I've got chapter 4 planned out, I just need to actually finish writing it.
> 
> Also, I really want to start a prompt request thing, so let me know if you'd be interested in something like that. I figured it'd encourage me to finish projects quicker.


End file.
